Horizontaal: 1. Ouders 6. Zorgt voor een frisse wind 10. ‘__ verdwijnt in 2028’ 11. Guy __, speelde in Memento 12. Suikerfabrikant die Corbion ging heten 13. Pri__ti__ 14.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Inside Climate News: A proposed merger of the largest utility in the country by market value, NextEra Energy, with the sixth-largest, Dominion, would create a megacompany at a time when data centers and rapid increases in electricity demand are reshaping the industry. The proposal, announced Monday morning and contingent on state and federal regulatory approval, would result in a company that leads in nearly every aspect of the US power and utility industry, including overall electricity generation, natural gas generation, and renewables. The $67 billion deal combines NextEra's size and reach with Dominion's positioning as the local utility for the world's largest concentration of data centers in northern Virginia. But the results are likely bad for consumers and the environment, creating a company with enormous financial and political strength that will be difficult to effectively regulate, according to consumer advocates and analysts.

For perspective, only Exxon Mobil and Chevron would be larger based on market value among US-based energy companies. "Mergers are not about consumers; they're about shareholders," said Ari Peskoe, director of the Electricity Law Initiative at Harvard Law School. "For the Dominion shareholders, they are selling their shares at a premium. The executives are getting massive payouts for facilitating this, assuming it all goes through, and obviously NextEra believes the transaction is going to add value to the company. Ratepayers are all an afterthought." The deal makes financial sense for both companies, said Andrew Bischof, an equity analyst for Morningstar. "We view the transaction as allowing NextEra to accelerate its data center ambitions, which had trailed those of its regulated peers, by using Dominion's expertise and relationships to expedite NextEra's data center hub plans," he said in a note to clients.

NextEra, based in Juno Beach, Florida, includes Florida Power & Light, the largest regulated electricity utility in the state, and NextEra Energy Resources, a wholesale electricity supplier that owns power plants across the nation. Dominion, based in Richmond, Virginia, includes regulated utilities serving much of Virginia, parts of North Carolina and South Carolina, and other assets across the country. The company would be called NextEra Energy, and NextEra CEO John W. Ketchum would serve in the same role after the deal closes. Robert M. Blue, Dominion's CEO, would be the CEO for regulated utilities for the merged company. The parties said they expect regulatory approvals to take 12 to 18 months. NextEra shareholders would own 74.5 percent and Dominion shareholders would own 25.5 percent, respectively, of the combined company in the all-stock transaction. "We are bringing NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy together because scale matters more than ever -- not for the sake of size, but because scale translates into capital and operating efficiencies," Ketchum said in a statement.

Although the companies claim the deal would produce savings, including $2.25 billion in Dominion customer bill credits, former regulator Marissa Paslick Gillett said she was "flabbergasted by the tone deafness," arguing that major utility mergers rarely deliver the promised "synergies" and often create "a behemoth" that is harder to regulate.

Others warned that a larger NextEra could use its political power "to the disadvantage of ratepayers," while climate advocates said expanding methane gas plants to serve data centers would worsen pollution and leave vulnerable communities "at the short end of the stick."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy has joined rival AI lab Anthropic. "The hire is a major coup for Anthropic in the high-stakes competition for elite AI talent -- and another sign the company is emerging as a magnet for some of the industry's most respected technical minds," reports Axios. From the report: Karpathy will start this week on Anthropic's pre-training team, which is responsible for the massive training runs that give Claude its core knowledge and capabilities, according to Anthropic. Karpathy will help launch a new team focused on using Claude itself to accelerate pretraining research -- an increasingly important frontier as AI companies race to automate parts of AI development. "I think the next few years at the frontier of LLMs will be especially formative. I am very excited to join the team here and get back to R&D," Karpathy said in a post on X.

Karpathy is a rare AI figure with credibility across research, industry and education. He was a founding member of OpenAI before serving as Tesla's director of AI, where he led the computer vision team behind Autopilot. Karpathy coined the term "vibe coding" and recently described himself as being in a "state of AI psychosis" since December -- embracing "tokenmaxxing" and aggressively stress-testing frontier models.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

ZOETERMEER (ANP) - De Europese vraag naar chips zal tussen nu en 2040 ongeveer verdubbelen, aangejaagd door onder meer de elektrificatie van transport- en energiesystemen en industriële automatisering. Dat staat in een rapport in opdracht van onder meer de Nederlandse ondernemersorganisatie voor de technologische industrie FME en de Duitse belangengroep ZVEI. FME waarschuwt echter dat die vraag zich niet automatisch vertaalt in investeringen in Europa.

In industriële toepassingen groeit de Europese vraag naar halfgeleiders zelfs nog harder, volgt uit het onderzoek. Tegelijkertijd is de productie in Europa 15 tot 30 procent duurder dan in Azië, vooral door hoge kosten voor energie en arbeid.

Europa heeft daarnaast een sterke uitgangspositie als het gaat om de kwaliteit van infrastructuur en bijvoorbeeld politieke stabiliteit. Maar op sommige terreinen is volgens de onderzoekers wel verbetering nodig. De belangrijkste beperking is de beschikbaarheid van talent. Daarnaast zijn trage vergunningsprocessen en complexe regelgeving obstakels.

"Als we willen dat bedrijven hier blijven en investeren, moet het investeringsklimaat aantrekkelijker zijn dan elders", benadrukt FME-voorzitter Theo Henrar. "We zijn sterk in ecosystemen en samenwerking, maar investeringen om aan de toenemende vraag te voldoen, landen hier alleen als andere randvoorwaarden aantoonbaar beter worden. Met bijvoorbeeld meer technisch talent, snellere procedures en overheidsstimulering moeten we het hier kunnen opnemen tegen landen als Singapore en Taiwan."

Met een Europese Chips Act wil de Europese Unie haar aandeel in de wereldwijde productie van halfgeleiders tegen 2030 verdubbelen tot 20 procent. Volgens FME is dat doel nog niet in zicht en blijft het Europese marktaandeel vooralsnog steken op 8 procent.

NEW YORK (ANP/AFP) - Met recordprijzen voor werken van onder anderen Jackson Pollock, Constantin Brâncuși en Mark Rothko staan de voorjaarsveilingen in New York in bloei. Volgens cijfers van persbureau AFP zijn er in mei in New York al twaalf werken verkocht voor meer dan 30 miljoen dollar, waaronder twee die de grens van 100 miljoen dollar overschreden.

Eerder was er een dip in de verkoopcijfers bij de veilinghuizen. Die werd toegeschreven aan de wereldwijde economische onzekerheid en een gebrek aan waardevolle werken op de markt.

Een schilderij van Jackson Pollock werd maandag het op vier na duurste werk ooit verkocht op een veiling. Het werd geveild bij Christie's in New York en bracht 181,2 miljoen dollar op. Het vorige record voor een werk van de Amerikaanse schilder Pollock stond op 61,2 miljoen dollar, behaald in 2021.

Het duurste schilderij dat ooit op een veiling is verkocht, blijft Salvator Mundi (De Verlosser van de Wereld) van Leonardo da Vinci. Dat werk uit de renaissance werd in 2017 voor 450 miljoen dollar geveild.

CARACAS (ANP/AFP) - De voorzitter van het Venezolaanse parlement, Jorge Rodríguez, heeft beloofd om voor vrijdag driehonderd politieke gevangenen vrij te laten.

"Sommigen van hen waren betrokken bij bewezen misdrijven, anderen zijn minderjarig, ouder dan 70 jaar of lijden aan een medische aandoening", aldus de parlementsvoorzitter, die een broer is van interim-president Delcy Rodríguez. Zij volgde Nicolás Maduro op na zijn ontvoering in januari door het Amerikaanse leger.

Onder de vrijgelatenen bevinden zich volgens de voorzitter voormalige politieagenten van de Metropolitan Police die betrokken waren bij de gebeurtenissen van april 2002. Destijds werd president Hugo Chávez (1999-2013) kortstondig door het leger afgezet.

Volgens de ngo Foro Penal zijn sinds januari bijna 800 mensen vrijgelaten. 186 van die gevangenen kwamen vrij dankzij de amnestiewet die in februari onder druk van Washington werd aangenomen. Critici vinden dat de amnestiewet tot nu toe tot te weinig vrijlatingen leidt.

DEN HAAG (ANP) - De pro-Palestijnse demonstranten die dinsdag zijn aangehouden in Den Haag in de buurt van de Tweede Kamer beklagen zich over de opstelling van de politie. De politie zou zich zonder duidelijke reden agressief hebben opgesteld en geweld hebben gebruikt.

Een van de aanwezigen was de vader van Jesse van Schaik, een van de door Israël opgepakte opvarenden van de Global Sumud Flotilla. "Ik ben echt verbijsterd door het optreden van de politie", zegt hij. Volgens hem wilden de demonstranten naar de agenten luisteren, maar kregen ze daar de kans niet voor en sloegen agenten op een gegeven moment met wapenstokken hard in op de demonstranten. Hij overweegt stappen te nemen tegen de politie.

Ook een woordvoerder van Global Sumud Flotilla Nederland laat weten dat sommige aanwezigen slechts één vordering hadden gehoord voordat ze werden aangehouden. "Vervolgens ging de politie op dreigende wijze om de demonstranten heen staan en dwong ze hen met geweld zich weg te bewegen richting de steeg die naar de Tweede Kamer toe leidt. Hierbij werd geweld toegepast door middel van wapenstokken." Ook waren er volgens haar demonstranten die pas later aankwamen zonder te weten dat de politie had gevorderd en die ook werden aangehouden.

De onaangekondigde demonstratie om aandacht te vragen voor de Flotilla begon rond 16.00 uur bij het Tweede Kamergebouw. Daar moesten ze al snel weg van de politie. Die geeft aan dat de demonstranten "meermaals" is gevraagd naar een demonstratievak te gaan en dat ze "ruim de kans hebben gehad" om daarheen te verplaatsen. Ruim zeventig mensen zijn vervolgens aangehouden.

Verder laat een politiewoordvoerster weten dat de balans nog precies wordt opgemaakt over het verloop van het politieoptreden. Ze kan daarom niet op elk detail reageren.

Interview with the guy behind the great Art But Make It Sports social accounts. “When he sees a sports photograph, he can recall, off the top of his head, a pose, or a style, or even just a figure or a form, from a painting or a sculpture.”

Weer voor Rotterdam ☁️ - 20-05-2026 01:16 CEST

In één oogopslag:
• 13.4°C · Bewolkt ☁️ | Min 9.5°C / Max 16.2°C | Kans op neerslag 37%

Verwachting voor vandaag:
• Min 9.5°C, Max 16.2°C (Matige motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 2.0 mm, Kans op neerslag 37%, 🧭 1018.1 hPa ↗️ +4.2 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 22.7 km/u (6.3 m/s), richting: ↑ 180°

Uurlijkse voorspelling voor de komende 12 uur:

• 02:00: 13.1°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 18%, 🧭 1013.9 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 17.6 km/u (4.9 m/s), richting: ↑ 194°
• 03:00: 13.4°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 13%, 🧭 1013.8 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 17.6 km/u (4.9 m/s), richting: ↑ 200°
• 04:00: 13.4°C (Zware motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 1.0 mm, Kans op neerslag 9%, 🧭 1014.0 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 16.6 km/u (4.6 m/s), richting: ↗ 205°
• 05:00: 13.4°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 6%, 🧭 1014.1 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 19.4 km/u (5.4 m/s), richting: ↗ 212°
• 06:00: 13.4°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 2%, 🧭 1014.6 hPa ↗️ +0.5 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 20.2 km/u (5.6 m/s), richting: ↗ 223°
• 07:00: 13.2°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, 🧭 1015.2 hPa ↗️ +0.6 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 18.0 km/u (5.0 m/s), richting: ↗ 217°
• 08:00: 13.5°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 4%, 🧭 1015.7 hPa ↗️ +0.5 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 20.9 km/u (5.8 m/s), richting: ↗ 222°
• 09:00: 13.1°C (Matige motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 0.8 mm, Kans op neerslag 28%, 🧭 1016.3 hPa ↗️ +0.6 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 17.6 km/u (4.9 m/s), richting: ↗ 236°
• 10:00: 13.8°C (Lichte regen) 🌧️, Neerslag 1.5 mm, Kans op neerslag 61%, 🧭 1016.9 hPa ↗️ +0.6 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 21.6 km/u (6.0 m/s), richting: ↗ 232°
• 11:00: 13.9°C (Lichte motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 0.1 mm, Kans op neerslag 84%, 🧭 1017.4 hPa ↗️ +0.5 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 23.4 km/u (6.5 m/s), richting: ↗ 240°
• 12:00: 15.1°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 87%, 🧭 1018.0 hPa ↗️ +0.6 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 22.7 km/u (6.3 m/s), richting: ↗ 242°
• 13:00: 15.9°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 80%, 🧭 1018.5 hPa ↗️ +0.5 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 22.3 km/u (6.2 m/s), richting: ↗ 242°

Voorspelling voor de komende dagen:

• donderdag 21 mei: Min 13.1°C, Max 17.3°C (Lichte regen) 🌧️, Neerslag 3.4 mm, Kans op neerslag 31%, 🧭 1026.6 hPa ↗️ +8.5 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 23.4 km/u (6.5 m/s), richting: ↗ 234°
• vrijdag 22 mei: Min 12.9°C, Max 21.6°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, 🧭 1028.0 hPa ↗️ +1.4 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 16.2 km/u (4.5 m/s), richting: ↗ 231°
• zaterdag 23 mei: Min 16.1°C, Max 23.8°C (Gedeeltelijk bewolkt) ⛅, 🧭 1029.2 hPa ↗️ +1.2 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 10.4 km/u (2.9 m/s), richting: ↖ 141°
• zondag 24 mei: Min 14.9°C, Max 24.0°C (Gedeeltelijk bewolkt) ⛅, 🧭 1032.4 hPa ↗️ +3.2 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 9.8 km/u (2.7 m/s), richting: ↘ 307°
• maandag 25 mei: Min 12.8°C, Max 23.1°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 1%, 🧭 1032.3 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 11.6 km/u (3.2 m/s), richting: ↙ 52°
• dinsdag 26 mei: Min 13.1°C, Max 23.4°C (Zonnig) ☀️, 🧭 1031.2 hPa ↘️ -1.1 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 11.6 km/u (3.2 m/s), richting: ↙ 61°

Details:
• 🌡️ Huidige temperatuur (om 01:15): 13.4°C (Bewolkt)
• 🤚 Gevoelstemperatuur: 11.3°C (-2.1°C)
• 💨 Windsnelheid: 18.0 km/u (5.0 m/s), richting: ↑ 194°
• 🌬️ Windstoten: 34.2 km/h (9.5 m/s)
• 💧 Luchtvochtigheid: 94%
• 🧭 Luchtdruk: 1013.9 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/3h
• 👁️ Zichtbaarheid: 6.3 km
• ☀️ UV-index: 0.0
• 🌅 Zonsopgang: 05:42 · 🌇 Zonsondergang: 21:34

Luchtkwaliteit:
• AQI: 42 🟢 (Goed)
• PM2.5: 5.6 μg/m³
• PM10: 7.1 μg/m³

Gegevens geleverd door Open-Meteo

#Rotterdam #Meteo #MeteoBot #MeteoNetherlands #OpenMeteo #FediMeteo

Anthropic is acquiring Stainless, a maker of software development tools that counts rivals OpenAI and Google as clients. The deal, reportedly for more than $300 million, demonstrates Anthropic's continued interest in exercising greater control over the AI technical stack and suggests that speculation about the commodification of models is on the mark. Frontier models will not be so strong that they serve as a moat or barrier to competition, but the tooling and workflow around those models should provide some cover. Anthropic has made several recent acquisitions that give it more say in the software that orchestrates model input, output, and tool calls. In December, it snarfed Bun, a JavaScript runtime, package manager, and test runner. Two months later, it bought Vercept, a company focused on AI-mediated computer usage. In April, it admitted healthcare AI startup Coefficient Bio into the fold. Enter Stainless. "Hundreds of companies rely on Stainless to generate SDKs, CLIs, and MCP servers – the libraries, command-line tools, and connectors that let developers and agents use an API," Anthropic said in its announcement. "Stainless turns an API spec into SDKs across TypeScript, Python, Go, Java, Kotlin, and more." SDKs are sticky. Whoever ships the cleanest one wins the long tail of developer mindshare One of those hundreds of companies is OpenAI – its Python, Node, Java, Go, and Ruby clients are based on SDKs generated by Stainless. With Stainless now planning to shutter its platform on September 1, 2026, OpenAI and other industry customers will have to shoulder the burden of maintaining existing SDKs and find equivalent tools elsewhere. It should be noted that OpenAI in March agreed to acquire Python tool maker Astral, one of six such deals this year. So far, the Astral acquisition hasn't affected the ability of Anthropic or developers to use Astral's tooling. Jan Schmitz, who runs AI analytics biz BrightBean, described the Stainless acquisition as both offensive and defensive. "By acquiring the SDK infrastructure used across the industry, Anthropic gets visibility into how competitors evolve their APIs, even if only through generator usage patterns, and it gains the ability to set the pace on integration tooling," he said in a blog post. "The defensive read: If OpenAI or Google had bought Stainless first, the damage to Anthropic’s developer ecosystem would have been worse. SDKs are sticky. Whoever ships the cleanest one wins the long tail of developer mindshare." Schmitz also argues that Anthropic sees value in controlling the MCP standard that it proposed and promoted. "The pattern looks like this: Control the standard by giving it away, then control the implementation by owning the toolchain," he said, noting that Google followed that playbook with Kubernetes and then making GKE the leading managed version. ®

Landmark report calls for widespread air conditioning and says UK temperatures forecast to exceed 40C by 2050

British homes will need air conditioning to survive predicted levels of global heating, the government’s climate advisers have warned in a report, as measures such as drawing curtains, opening windows and growing trees for shade are not likely to be enough.

Air conditioning should be installed in all care homes and hospitals within the next 10 years, and in all schools within 25 years, according to the Climate Change Committee (CCC), which published a major report on adapting to the impacts of global heating on Wednesday.

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Whale first photographed off the coast of Brazil in 2003 spotted off north-east Australia in September 2025

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A humpback whale has made a 15,000km journey from Brazil to Australia, marking what researchers believe is the longest distance ever documented between sightings of an individual humpback.

The whale was first photographed in 2003 at the Abrolhos Bank, Brazil’s main humpback whale nursery, off the coast of the north-eastern state of Bahia. In September 2025, it was spotted again in Hervey Bay off the Queensland coast, representing a travel distance of about 15,100km.

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This affecting anti-hagiography traces the ascent of a bona fide superstar, featuring interviews with Nick Cave, Dannii, Jason Donovan – and the icon herself making a shocking cancer revelation

Beyond the sequins, feathers and gold hotpants, the stories of the most enduring pop megastars tend to be ones of jaw-dropping grit and undimmable power. Especially when they’re women. So it is with Kylie: pint-sized seller of over 80m records, singer of two of the greatest pop bangers of all time (Can’t Get You Out of My Head and Padam Padam, obviously), and the reticent subject of this increasingly intimate and, finally, profoundly moving three-part Netflix documentary. What starts as a bog-standard run-through of Kylie’s ascent to superstardom – an excess of Pete Waterman, Neighbours clips and virulent 1990s sexism – ends with a disclosure that moves me to tears.

It comes in the final 10 minutes. It’s 2023: a euphoric high point in Kylie’s career. Padam Padam, the first single from Kylie’s 16th album, Tension, has just been released. Then the words “One More Thing” flash across a black screen. Cut to present-day Kylie arriving at the studio, singing songs from Tension with her longstanding team of British songwriters. “There’s a song called Story … ” she says to director Michael Harte (also the editor of Netflix’s Beckham), who shot the documentary over two years. Kylie, who is notoriously private, falters. Her songwriting partner of more than 25 years, Richard “Biff” Stannard, takes her hand. She starts to cry as she divulges what Story is really about: her second cancer diagnosis, in early 2021.

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National Audit Office says potential benefits are ‘considerable but uncertain’ while risks are ‘immediate and substantial’

The cost of the government’s £38bn nuclear plant in Suffolk is subject to “significant uncertainty” and may outweigh the benefits for UK households until at least 2064, according to the government’s spending watchdog.

The National Audit Office (NAO) has warned that although the potential benefits of the Sizewell C nuclear plant are considerable, they remain uncertain. The risks, however, are “immediate, substantial and borne by the public”.

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The government must act to redress the unequal impact of climate change, or risk rising temperatures making disparities worse

• UK ‘built for climate that no longer exists’ and needs urgent changes to survive global heating, report warns

It may not always feel like it, but Britons are going to have to get used to living in a hot country.

Temperatures are already 1.4C above the historic norm, and heading for a 2C rise in the next two decades. This may not sound like much, but it will mean far higher temperatures in summer – heatwaves as high as 45C lasting for more than a week, dwarfing the previous record of 40C in 2022 – as well as more frequent droughts and severe flooding, according to a major report published on Wednesday.

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Wallace Collection, London
Intended to relieve the stresses of office, especially during wartime, Churchill’s amateurish works have an overpowering joy – but his donkeys would make Lowry blush

Winston Churchill, British prime minister during the second world war and again in the 1950s, was firstly a politician and statesman, but secondly a painter. He was not an artist though. He described his paintings as “daubs”: they are the amateur output of a Sunday painter, more about mild stress relief than technically efficient vehicles intended for iconographic messages. There is an innocent charm in Churchill’s declaration that “the simplest objects have their beauty” – and in his encouraging others to paint too, without seeking fame or recognition. He exhibited modestly, and anonymously, in minor salons in the 1920s. Squinting (very) hard just about reveals the colourist efforts of perhaps a very minor impressionist-leaning painter, to be charitable, though any relation to the existing art historical canon is irrelevant: the works are of interest because of the identity of their creator, and as primary historical sources. They record where he was, when, and what he saw: variously stately mansions while staying with friends; bottles of his favourite tipples; Blenheim Palace and its grounds; holidaying in the French Riviera; and, inevitably, views while travelling as a statesman, such as Jerusalem in 1921, shortly after the Cairo Conference, which he chaired as colonial secretary under prime minister Lloyd George.

Curators Xavier Bray and Lucy Davis wisely avoid reading political views into these scenes, though can’t resist insinuating the odd symbolic link, such as between a cannon pointing out to sea in The Beach at Walmer (c 1938), a favourite bathing spot of the Churchill family, and his contemporaneous public warnings against Nazi Germany.

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In new Netflix documentary, pop superstar says she ‘got through it, again’, referring back to successful treatment for breast cancer in 2005

Kylie Minogue has revealed that in early 2021 she was diagnosed with cancer for a second time, after diagnosis and successful treatment for breast cancer in 2005.

The pop star discussed the previously unannounced diagnosis in a new Netflix documentary entitled Kylie, available from today. “My second cancer diagnosis was in early 2021. I was able to keep that to myself … Not like the first time,” she said, referring to her highly publicised first treatment.

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mikeleonardvisualarts posted a photo:

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